The Gamer's POV

"Hey there."

Clara flinched as she heard a male voice come from the raven in front of her. A split second later, it exploded into dozens of feathers that swirled in the air, gathering together until a full figure made of feathers stood before her.

The figure rapidly bled with color, and in the next second, Cedric was standing right in front of her with both hands resting casually behind his back.

For a moment, they just stared at each other, though with completely different expressions. While Clara looked like a mix of nervous, agitated, and guarded, Cedric had an unreadable look on his face.

Upon seeing this scene, one would expect a fight to occur over possession of the relic in Clara’s hand.

However, rather than shove the relic to prepare for a fight, she lowered her head and exhaled. For a moment, the world felt unfair and her eyes began to grow wet with tears. But she understood.

Life had always been unfair to her.

She raised her head and asked, "It’s time, isn’t it?"

Cedric lowered his eyes, then replied in a somber voice, "I am sorry, Clara."

She smiled warmly. At this moment, her smile was so bright and full of life that, for a second, she almost looked like her old self again.

"I understand!"

***

The day before the Triad Games...

Bastion of Conquest.

——

The short, blonde Clara pressed her keycard to the door before pushing it open. She stepped inside and flicked on the lights, revealing quite the mess in the large room.

This was her workshop.

As someone obsessed with science, magic, and technology, Clara loved inventing things, and she had even requested that the Bastion give her a dedicated space to work.

Currently, this large space was littered with unfinished inventions and dismantled brass gearwork. There were papers scattered everywhere, and even some blueprints pinned directly to the walls. They were all covered in complex mechanical equations, mana-flow calculations, and detailed technical schematics of clockwork gears and pressure valves.

A bright grin immediately lit up her face, and she giggled as she hurried to her working table. She picked up her large goggles, slipping them over her head and clicking the magnifying lenses into place over her eyes.

After that, she picked up what looked like a small brass box, structured like a box camera but stripped of conventional optics.

She fiddled a bit with the device for a moment, then tightened a loose copper gear near the housing.

Once she was satisfied, she pushed the small activation lever in the corner down, while inserting a bit of mana, and almost immediately, the device hummed to life. In place of a glass lens, three concentric brass rings floated suspended in midair, slowly spinning around a pulsing blue mana gem at the center.

"It’s working, Barnaby! It’s working! It’s working!"

She began dancing on the spot, but then, the mana flow began to fail and all of a sudden, it sputtered out violently.

"No, no, no, no!"

The device sparked and choked on a puff of dark grey smoke.

"No~" she whined and almost threw the damn thing. But when she remembered how much time she had invested in it, she figured maybe she wasn’t that angry.

"What did I do wrong? I thought if I just rerouted the conduit, it would stabilize the output."

At that moment, a gust of wind blew and a man appeared near her. He was a very lean man who looked like a scientist, holding a walking stick as one of his legs dragged slightly behind him. He smiled as he limped closer to her workbench.

"Don’t beat yourself up over a little smoke. You’ll figure it out soon enough, my dear. You’re far too smart to let a minor setback stop you."

"Thank you, Professor," she said as she turned toward the man who had spoken, wiping a streak of soot off her cheek. "I’ll ground the resonance crystal this time around, and I’ll reduce the amount of mana inserted. Hopefully, it’ll work."

She turned around, but then flinched violently as she saw a raven perched on the edge of her tool rack, watching her curiously.

"Ahh!" She almost hugged Barnaby, but then quickly relaxed when she recognized the familiar bird.

"Oh, it’s just Cedric’s raven."

Indeed...

The bird belonged to Cedric.

A few months ago, Clara had been one of those who had been brought back to life after coming back from the First Ring by Cedric’s bond.

Back then, she had later gotten a visit from the Raven of Decay. The woman had just handed her a black feather, and said in a sharp tone:

"Keep this with you. It is a part of my bearer. If he ever needs to contact you for any reason, he will reach out to you through this."

Clara could not retort and had kindly and curiously accepted the feather; after all, she owed her life to Cedric.

Ever since then, however, the feather had just remained a feather. Not until a few days ago, when it suddenly changed into a raven, startling her.

She had wondered what Cedric might have wanted with her, but to her surprise, the bird had not said anything and had just watched her.

At first, she felt somewhat uneasy having an eerie bird staring at her every move, but after a while, she simply grew used to its presence.

The bird would just perch quietly in the room and watch her work, but it would not say anything.

Seeing the bird now, she figured, oh, it’s just come to watch me again.

But then, she was about to turn back to her workbench, when it suddenly spoke in a female voice.

"What are you working on?"

Clara jumped again and nearly threw her device away.

Fortunately, she caught herself and turned to the bird with wide eyes. "It can also speak?!"

At that moment, the bird began to change into black smoke that swirled before condensing into a human shape, spilling onto the floor until Cedric was sitting on the edge of her workbench.

"Yes, it can," he said with a somber smile.

Clara blinked.

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